Thursday, April 18

Occasionally you may hear a news story about religious
persecution around the world. A church being burned, rights for certain
religions lost, or people being arrested or killed for their belief. But the
news just reports the occurrence. Rarely do they seem to show the whole story
of persecution. While the persecution is a terrible thing, there are sometimes
glimmers of hope.

Maryam Rostampour and Marzieyeh Amirizadeh are two friends
who lived together in Iran. Though they each grew up in an Islamic household,
they never believed themselves to be followers of Islam, instead becoming
Christians. They knew that rejecting Islam in Iran could be dangerous, yet they
willing shared their faith with people who asked. In 2009 they were arrested
and eventually made their way to Evin Prison in Tehran, which has a history of
torture and executions. In all they spent 259 days in Evin Prison merely
because they were seen handing out some Bibles.

Saturday, April 6

It seems like attacks against Christianity are growing more
direct and reaching an ever widening audience. At the same time, it is rare to
hear a solid defense to the attacks. Usually defense’s offered seem shallow, or
they don’t hit as wide an audience. This is what prompted Rice Broocks to write
God’s Not Dead. This is his attempt
to answer Atheisms charge.

The book is roughly divided into two sections. The first
section is focused more on faith and science, with Broocks arguing that
Christianity is not incompatible with science. This focus is heaviest in
chapter 4 and 5, which are about creation and God’s creation of mankind. Early
chapters also cover topics such as the presence of evil and faith versus
reason. The second half of the book focuses mostly on the accuracy of the
Bible, which includes looking at historical proof for the texts.